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Lebanon Awaiting Syria’s Official Response to US Proposals

US Ambassador to Türkiye and Special Envoy to Syria Tom Barrack (C), and US Deputy Special Envoy for the Middle East Morgan Ortagus (L) arrive for a meeting with Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam at the government palace in Beirut, Lebanon, 18 August 2025. (EPA)
US Ambassador to Türkiye and Special Envoy to Syria Tom Barrack (C), and US Deputy Special Envoy for the Middle East Morgan Ortagus (L) arrive for a meeting with Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam at the government palace in Beirut, Lebanon, 18 August 2025. (EPA)
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Lebanon Awaiting Syria’s Official Response to US Proposals

US Ambassador to Türkiye and Special Envoy to Syria Tom Barrack (C), and US Deputy Special Envoy for the Middle East Morgan Ortagus (L) arrive for a meeting with Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam at the government palace in Beirut, Lebanon, 18 August 2025. (EPA)
US Ambassador to Türkiye and Special Envoy to Syria Tom Barrack (C), and US Deputy Special Envoy for the Middle East Morgan Ortagus (L) arrive for a meeting with Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam at the government palace in Beirut, Lebanon, 18 August 2025. (EPA)

Lebanon is not only waiting for Israel’s response to its stance on the US proposals related to a ceasefire, limiting the possession of arms to the state and the demarcation of the border, but it is also awaiting an official position from Syria.

Two out of the 30 articles of the “US document” concern Syria. They cover the demarcation of their shared land and sea borders and determining exclusive economic zones. The second article focuses on jointly combating drug smuggling.

Implementing the first article calls for forming a tripartite committee of Lebanese and Syrian representatives and United Nations experts, as well as assistance from the US, Saudi Arabia and France.

The document says the proposals will be effective as of August 1 as soon as they are approved by Lebanon, Israel and Syria. Lebanon is the only party to have so far approved them.

A government source told Asharq Al-Awsat that Lebanese official channels have yet to receive any official Syrian position on the US document.

US Ambassador to Türkiye and Special Envoy to Syria Tom Barrack was in Lebanon this week to further discuss the proposals. He met with President Joseph Aoun, parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam before traveling to Israel.

Aoun had informed Barrack that Lebanon demands a response from both Israel and Syria. Barrack said he will ensure that Damascus makes its position clear.

At the moment, contacts between Lebanon and Syria are taking place through security and military channels.

The source said a Syrian official delegation is set to travel to Lebanon next week to discuss pending files between the countries, most notably border demarcation, drug smuggling and Syrian refugees and detainees in Lebanon. Damascus has notably not yet appointed an ambassador to Beirut.

Saudi Arabia had in March sponsored an agreement in Jeddah between the Lebanese and Syrian defense ministers that stresses the need to demarcate the border between the two neighbors, form dedicated legal committees to tackle pending files and activate coordination mechanisms to handle security and military challenges.

Cold relations

The Lebanese-Syrian border has witnessed fierce clashes between clans and Hezbollah, before developing into clashes between the Lebanese army and Syrian forces.

Director of the Levant Institute for Strategic Affairs Dr. Sami Nader doubted that the articles tied to Lebanon and Syria can be implemented.

He told Asharq Al-Awsat that the situation is complex and compounded by the presence of Hezbollah members along the Lebanese side of the border.

So, the article related to the Lebanese state having monopoly over arms needs to be implemented so that the articles related to Syria can in turn be implemented, he explained.

Saudi Arabia and the US are playing a key role in border demarcation, but real progress there can only be achieved once the army carries out its plan to limit the possession of arms to the state, Nader said.

The military is expected to send its plan to the cabinet.

As it stands, relations between Lebanon and Syria's new authorities can be described as “cold” despite visits by former PM Najib Mikati and current PM Salam to Damascus after the fall of the Assad regime in December.

Syria’s Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani was expected to visit Beirut at some point, but a date was never set.

Former MP Moeen al-Merehbi told Asharq Al-Awsat that Beirut and Damascus have to exert more efforts to forge warm ties, especially since they both evidently want to.

The new Syrian authorities have an interest in demarcating the marine and land borders with Lebanon, as opposed to the Assad regime that did not even allow anyone to broach the subject, he remarked.

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Arab World

Blasts Heard as Lebanese State Media Says Israel Strikes Beirut Suburbs

The rubble of a damaged building after an Israeli strike in the Chiyah area, a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, 25 March 2026. (EPA)
The rubble of a damaged building after an Israeli strike in the Chiyah area, a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, 25 March 2026. (EPA)
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Blasts Heard as Lebanese State Media Says Israel Strikes Beirut Suburbs

The rubble of a damaged building after an Israeli strike in the Chiyah area, a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, 25 March 2026. (EPA)
The rubble of a damaged building after an Israeli strike in the Chiyah area, a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, 25 March 2026. (EPA)

Lebanese media reported an Israeli strike hit Beirut's southern suburbs early Friday, as AFP correspondents heard several explosions from the Hezbollah stronghold that Israel has repeatedly struck since war erupted this month.

AFPTV footage showed smoke billowing from the area after the raid.

Lebanon's official National News Agency reported that "enemy aircraft" carried out a raid on Tahouitet al-Ghadir in the southern suburbs at dawn.

Israel has previously issued sweeping evacuation warnings for the area, but provided no specific warning in advance of Friday's strike.

The usually densely populated area has largely emptied of residents since the hostilities erupted, and it was unclear whether there were any casualties.

Hours later, Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee called on residents of Sejoud village in southern Lebanon to evacuate to the north of Zahrani river, warning of an imminent attack against Hezbollah.

Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war on March 2 when Tehran-backed Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel to avenge the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei.

Israel has since been bombing Lebanon, mainly in areas where Hezbollah has long held sway, and has sent in ground troops in a push to establish a buffer zone in south Lebanon.

Hezbollah said its fighters kept up its attacks on Israeli troops in south Lebanon early Friday.

On Thursday, official Lebanese media reported deadly Israeli raids in the country's south, and Hezbollah claimed more than 90 attacks on Israeli targets inside Lebanon and across the border.

Also Thursday, Israel's military said two soldiers were killed in south Lebanon, while Israeli emergency services said a rocket fired from Lebanon killed a man in northern Israel's Nahariya area.

Israeli strikes since March 2 have killed at least 1,116 people including 121 children, according to Lebanese authorities, while more than one million people have been displaced.

Arab World

Lebanon: Hezbollah Boycotts Cabinet Session over Iran Ambassador Expulsion

A previous session of the Lebanese Parliament (National News Agency)
A previous session of the Lebanese Parliament (National News Agency)
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Lebanon: Hezbollah Boycotts Cabinet Session over Iran Ambassador Expulsion

A previous session of the Lebanese Parliament (National News Agency)
A previous session of the Lebanese Parliament (National News Agency)

Ministers from Hezbollah and its ally Amal boycotted Lebanon's cabinet session on Thursday in protest over the government declaring the Iranian ambassador persona non grata, a Lebanese official told AFP.

The two Shiite parties have a combined four ministers, with one independent Shiite also represented in the cabinet present at the meeting, the official said, as the spat over the Iranian diplomat's expulsion escalated.

Hezbollah is an armed movement backed by Iran, which also has political representation in both government and parliament.

Arab World

Lebanese Fear Another Occupation as Israel Threatens to Use Gaza Tactics in the South

Israeli military vehicles maneuver on the Lebanese side of the border, as seen from the Upper Galilee in northern Israel, 25 March 2026. EPA/ATEF SAFADI
Israeli military vehicles maneuver on the Lebanese side of the border, as seen from the Upper Galilee in northern Israel, 25 March 2026. EPA/ATEF SAFADI
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Lebanese Fear Another Occupation as Israel Threatens to Use Gaza Tactics in the South

Israeli military vehicles maneuver on the Lebanese side of the border, as seen from the Upper Galilee in northern Israel, 25 March 2026. EPA/ATEF SAFADI
Israeli military vehicles maneuver on the Lebanese side of the border, as seen from the Upper Galilee in northern Israel, 25 March 2026. EPA/ATEF SAFADI

As Israel trades fire with Hezbollah, calls for mass evacuations and sends ground troops deeper into Lebanon, its leaders have hinted at a long-term occupation modeled on the devastating conquest of much of Gaza after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack.

Israel says it needs to establish a zone of control in the depopulated south to shield its own northern communities, which have faced daily rocket attacks since the Iran-backed militant Hezbollah group joined the wider war. Many in Lebanon fear that could mean the open-ended displacement of over a million people, the flattening of their homes and a loss of territory.

Israel's Defense Minister Israel Katz said this week that it would create a “security zone” up to the Litani River, some 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the border in some places. He said troops would destroy homes, which he claimed were being used by militants, and that residents would not return until northern Israel is safe.

The campaign would mirror the one in Gaza, in which Israeli forces flattened and largely depopulated the eastern half of the Palestinian territory, Katz said on Tuesday. Israel has said it won't withdraw from the enclave until Hamas disarms as part of a US-brokered ceasefire deal.

“We have ordered an acceleration in the destruction of Lebanese homes in contact-line villages to neutralize threats to Israeli communities, in accordance with the model of Beit Hanoun and Rafah in Gaza,” Katz said, referring to border towns that were largely obliterated.

From one war to the next

After a 2024 ceasefire halted Israel's last war with Hezbollah, Israeli forces gradually withdrew from southern Lebanon except for five strategic hilltops along the border.

Lebanese returned to find that homes, infrastructure, and some entire villages destroyed. Israel said it had dismantled Hezbollah infrastructure that could have been used to launch an Oct. 7-style attack, and it continued to strike what it said were militant targets on a near-daily basis after the truce.

Hezbollah resumed it attacks after Israel and the United States launched the war with Iran on Feb. 28, accusing Israel of having repeatedly violated the ceasefire. Israel accused Lebanon's government of failing to carry out its pledge to disarm Hezbollah, despite its unprecedented steps toward criminalizing the group.

In the latest fighting, Israel has launched blistering air raids across Lebanon, killing more than 1,000 people — mostly outside of the border area — and displacing over a million. It has warned residents to evacuate a wide swath of the south, extending from the border to the Zahrani River, some 55 kilometers (34 miles) away.

The Israeli military says it has launched a limited ground operation. Political leaders speak of more ambitious plans.

Bezalel Smotrich, Israel's far-right finance minister and a member of its Security Cabinet, said this week that the current war must end with “fundamental change.”

“The Litani must be our new border with the state of Lebanon,” he said.

Echoes of an earlier occupation Israel invaded southern Lebanon in 1982 during the country's civil war. Hezbollah, established that year, waged a guerrilla campaign that eventually ended the Israeli occupation in 2000.

This time around, Israel has bombed seven bridges over the Litani, the northern edge of a UN-patrolled buffer zone established after previous conflicts. Israel says Hezbollah was using the bridges to move fighters and weapons, and that its military will control the remaining crossings.

Heavy fighting has meanwhile erupted in the town of Khiam, the fall of which would cut off the south from Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley, another area with a large Hezbollah presence.

After the bridges were bombed, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun accused Israel of seeking to sever the south from the rest of the country “to establish a buffer zone, entrench the reality of occupation, and pursue Israeli expansion within Lebanese territories.”

UN peacekeepers say the bombing of the bridges and ongoing clashes have hindered their operations and put personnel at risk.

“This is the closest fighting activity we have seen to our positions,” said Kandice Ardel, spokesperson for the UN mission known as UNIFIL. “Bullets, fragments, and shrapnel have hit buildings and open areas inside our headquarters.”

Ardel said peacekeepers at observation points have seen a growing presence of Israeli troops and “engineering assets,” though they have not seen any new military positions built yet.

‘Different shades’ of control

Mohanad Hage Ali, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Middle East think tank in Beirut, said Israel has already established “different shades” of control.

“The first line of borders is a no-man zone. This is basically a large parking lot that is facing Israel,” he said. “There is nothing there, no movement, nothing at all.”

Lebanese movement is restricted farther north. During last year's olive harvest, farmers struggled to reach their groves because of regular Israeli strikes and had to be accompanied by Lebanese troops and UNIFIL peacekeepers, who coordinated with Israel.

Sarit Zehavi, the founder and president of the Alma Institute and a retired Israeli military officer, said Israel will likely establish a more extensive area of control stretching farther north.

She acknowledged that Israel was unlikely to defeat Hezbollah and was at risk of having to maintain a long-term presence in southern Lebanon.

“But the other alternative is to take the risk that we will be slaughtered. It’s as simple as that,” she said.

No diplomatic offramp in sight

Lebanon's government has broken a longstanding taboo by proposing direct talks with Israel. It has also taken action against Hezbollah since the last war, criminalizing its activities and claiming to have dismantled hundreds of military positions.

But neither the US nor Israel has shown any interest in such talks as they focus on the wider war with Iran.

If negotiations occur, Israel could demand major concessions in exchange for relinquishing territory taken by force — an updated version of the decades-old “land for peace” formula.

Israel seized parts of Syria after the overthrow of Syrian President Bashar Assad and is in talks with the new government in Damascus about an updated security arrangement. In Gaza, it has vowed to keep half the territory until the militant Palestinian Hamas group lays down its arms, as each side has accused the other of violating the truce reached in October.

Lebanese who fled their homes are meanwhile in limbo — and some fear they may never return.

Elias Konsol and his neighbors fled the Christian border village of Alma al-Shaab with UNIFIL's help. He was reunited with his mother, who cried in his arms, at a church near Beirut where funeral services were being held for a resident killed in an Israeli strike.

Konsol said there were no weapons or Hezbollah fighters in his village, but it was forced to evacuate anyway.

“We no longer know our fate,” he said. “We don’t know if we will see our homes and village again.”